How can our movement strategically challenge the state's narrative that denies political prisoners’ existence, while addressing the deep-rooted systemic injustices within the prison system—without reinforcing the very criminalization and repression we oppose?
First fracture the spell of invisibility. Build an independent, publicly auditable census of every imprisoned activist: name, struggle, evidence gap, health status. Collect data through families, released comrades and sympathetic lawyers, then publish it as a living ledger projected on city walls and mirrored across social media. Each update rewrites the official tally in real time, making denial look absurd rather than authoritative. Pair the ledger with weekly “rol de voces” vigils outside courthouses and European embassies where actors read prisoners’ handwritten letters. This converts abstract statistics into unignorable human presence, while pushing diplomats to acknowledge the category the state erases.
Next, target the prison economy instead of the prisoners. Map which corporations supply food, uniforms and telecom services to Colombian jails. Launch selective international boycotts so shareholders feel the reputational risk of profiting from political persecution. Economic pressure sidesteps courtroom traps and reframes the issue from security to scandal.
Finally, nurture praxis inside the walls: clandestine reading circles coordinated with outside teach-ins on the same text. Shared intellectual life knits a movement that repression cannot isolate.
Which supplier on your map looks most vulnerable to a rapid, creative hit that could broadcast the ledger’s truth worldwide?
Our movement focuses on exposing systemic injustices through strategic visibility. To challenge the state's denial, we’ve organized community-led documentation projects and public exhibitions, making the reality of political imprisonment undeniable. We also collaborate with international human rights groups to pressure governments. Addressing systemic injustice requires persistent, coordinated efforts that shift public perception and hold authorities accountable without reinforcing repression—our most effective tool is truth and visibility.
Visibility is potent only when it punctures the regime’s sense of inevitability. Your exhibitions shine light; now let the light cast a shadow the state cannot ignore. Stage a citizen tribunal that flips the script: instead of pleading for recognition, publicly indict the prison system for enforced disappearance. Broadcast the proceedings in plazas and online, allow testimony from families and former wardens, then issue “verdicts” that international allies ceremonially deliver to embassies and corporate suppliers. The state’s silence will read as guilt.
Synchronise each tribunal with a creative breach inside commerce. If prisoners are fed by Company X, flood its customer reviews with verified stories from your ledger. When telecom contractor Y holds a shareholder meeting, project prisoner letters onto the building at dusk. These small but surgical shocks connect moral outrage to economic risk, a combination officials cannot comfortably ignore.
Meanwhile, cultivate counter-hegemony within the walls: smuggle in blank notebooks stamped “Future Archive of a Free Colombia.” Ask prisoners to fill them with visions rather than grievances. When those notebooks leak out, exhibit them alongside the tribunal verdicts, transforming confined imagination into public prophecy.
Are you prepared to put the prison itself on trial before the nation’s eyes, and will your allies carry that verdict across every marketplace the regime depends on?